SAN FRANCISCO -- For as many strides as baseball has made in the last decade, it can still be hard to fully trust defensive metrics. They take longer to normalize, and teams do their best tracking internally.
You could ordinarily then throw out a grain of salt when you see the Giants ranking near the bottom of the league in Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average through just 40 games, but you can't do that right now. The eye test confirms it.
After playing extremely sloppy defense in a blowout loss on Sunday, the Giants again fell short with the gloves against the New York Mets, losing 13-3 and putting outfielder Luis González on the mound for a second straight game and third time in nine days.
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The Giants have lost five straight for the second time this month and aren't doing anything particularly well, but the defense has been notably poor in recent games, a far cry from 2021.
"We're just not making enough plays," manager Gabe Kapler said. "Nobody expects us to win Gold Gloves because that's not the type of roster that we are, it's not the type of team that we've been, but we definitely need to make more plays than we're making."
The Giants entered the day ranked 28th in the league in Defensive Runs Saved, ahead of only the Cincinnati Reds, who are racing toward 100 losses, and the Philadelphia Phillies, who purposely put together a team full of sluggers with no defensive skills. They're 21st in Outs Above Average after ranking fifth last year, and they would be down near the very bottom if not for shortstop Brandon Crawford, who ranks as the best defender in the NL so far by that metric.
The big mistake on this night came from Darin Ruf during a brutal stretch for right-hander Alex Cobb. With a runner on first and two outs in the third inning, Cobb gave up back-to-back infield singles on balls that had a combined hit probability of just 36 percent.
The bases were loaded, but he got Francisco Lindor to hit a high pop-up to left. That one had a hit probability of one percent, but Ruf couldn't snag it as he approached the left field wall, crashing into the protective net. Instead of the inning being over, the Mets tied the game at 2-2.
"He gave us everything he had -- wasn't able to catch a baseball," Kapler said. "He's the type of guy that's going to make a big difference with his offense and when he's at his best he makes a lot of plays on defense as well, including that play. It wasn't in the cards."
Cobb has had the worst luck of any starting pitcher in the big leagues this year, entering the night with nearly a four-run difference between his expected ERA and actual ERA. He didn't get any help on this night, but he didn't do himself any favors after the misplay. The next pitch was a curveball to Pete Alonso that was supposed to be outside but hung where the Mets star could crush it to left for a three-run shot.
San Francisco Giants
"It all happened so quickly," Cobb said. "I felt I executed decently and then I looked and saw it caught a lot of the plate."
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The Giants signed Cobb in the offseason because they felt he was a perfect fit, a groundball pitcher who could thrive with their infield defense and positioning. Thus far he has been snakebit, but he said he has managed to keep the frustration from boiling over.
"Baseball evens out eventually," he said. "I'm waiting for that moment."